The Government may be accepting its defeat in the Supreme Court graciously overall, but David Davis was in a rather dismissive mood when he responded to Labour’s questions about the ruling in the House of Commons this afternoon. The Brexit Secretary gave a statement to the House explaining that ministers would publish ‘within days’ a bill that would give the Government the legal power to trigger Article 50. Both in the statement and in his responses to questions about it, he repeatedly told the Chamber that it would be a ‘straightforward’ bill. Meanwhile the Government had already offered MPs plenty of scrutiny of the Brexit negotiations, and the Prime Minister had given the clearest speech on her negotiating position that Davis could think of.
So why, his response to the Opposition suggested, was Labour complaining? As Davis finished responding to Keir Starmer, he argued that ‘I really don’t think the honourable gentleman has advanced the knowledge of the House that much, but I look forward to the contributions of other members’. But neither had Davis advanced the knowledge of the House on key questions such as how the scrutiny of this ‘straightforward’ bill would actually work. He didn’t say whether it would be possible to amend the legislation, something Starmer had said Labour would want to do. Indeed, Starmer had warned ministers against trying to avoid amendments, but Davis chose to avoid the question about avoiding amendments – for the time being.
No government wants to give any more time or opportunity for scrutiny of its proposals than it needs to: such examination of laws takes up time and is inconvenient. But today the Supreme Court has forced a little more scrutiny. Davis’s response made clear that the government is unlikely to volunteer any more than it needs.
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